enough. They will speak still further of a conscience, and a principle of honour, and of taste and delicacy. All this is well; there is something in it that exalts the mind. But this is not enough. Nay, further, what are thoughts of God and Providence, if here you rest, and think you have attained your proper level? A great First Cause: a living principle of all that is,

"A Motion and a Spirit that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things:"—

this is vast and noble, and sublime.

But, what is this Being to you? What is your intercourse with him? What thoughts and feelings do you gain from him? How far do you regard him as your friend, and become familiar, sacredly familiar, with Him as your Father? No! it is only by the Gospel of Christ, and by the faith thereof, that we can realize and make substantial to our hearts, a GOD; it is only as manifested through the Son that we can hold communion with the Father; and by this communion, -in the blest experience of it, can be raised to true and moral elevation, and to spiritual refinement. As the persons, and the thoughts with which we are familiar, as the beings and ideas with which we hold an intercourse, so will be

the character and the degree of mental Elevation. If that intercourse be yet but with the world, though in its purest forms, we may be thereby raised up higher in the world, but never, never, above the world! Faith, and Faith alone, imbues us with the thoughts of God himself, and therefore raises us indeed above the world.

For, says our text, " This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our Faith :"-this is the means whereby we rise above the pleasures and the honours, and the schemes of earth into a nobler region. And why, and how, does Faith produce this true elevation of Soul? because it brings us into fellowship with God, and therefore with the things of God, and so transforms us into likeness, high and heavenly likeness, of our God. Faith, you know, is a childlike trust in God as our Father: but Trust in Him, and friendliness towards Him, produce intercourse and fellowship with Him:-and the more this blessed intercourse goes on, the more shall we be raised up towards Him, and assimilated to Him. As he who is conversant with the world imbibes the spirit of the world, its sentiments and character: so he who is conversant with God imbibes the Spirit of God, his sentiments and character. "We" (says St. Paul) "have received, not the spirit of the

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world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." And therefore," says St. John in our text, "whatsoever is born of God"-whosoever has received the spirit of adoption and the seed of Sonship,-" overcometh the world :" whosoever has become a new creature in Christ Jesus, and thereby (as St. Peter speaks) a partaker of the divine nature;" and thus (as St. John says, ch. i.) "has entered into fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," gaining by faith the sense of his most gracious. favour and enjoying the communion of his Spirit-he, and he only, "overcometh the world."

To overcome the world we must derive our thoughts and principles from another source than from the world itself; for, says St. John, (ch. ii.) "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, these are not of the Father, but of the world,"these spring not from the pure and undefiled fountain of God above, but from the polluted sources of this earth below. And furthermore, we must have our affections also raised to an object above the objects in the world; for, says our Lord, "where our treasure is, there will our heart be also:" therefore, to overcome the

world, we must rise into the very presence of the Holy One: we must set our affections on things above, and not on things on the earth; we must be "as dead, and our life hid with Christ in God."

And what, I ask, is the means of all this but Faith? Faith, which first brings us to the Father through dependance on the Son: Faith, which assures us of the Father's free forgiveness, and unbounded love: Faith, which from day to day, and hour to hour, chases from the mind the clouds and mists of earth, and opens to our view the pure expanse of heaven: Faith, which wings the soul into this purer region, and brings it into fellowship with Him who sits enthroned there. Brethren! would you be great and elevated? would you have dignity and manhood? Have you an ambition to be something, and to rise above yourselves? I charge you seek this in that way in which alone you can obtain it: begin your course in that which seems most opposite to your desires. All true elevation begins in self-annihilation: all moral dignity has its root in moral humiliation: Would you become superior to the world, and to the flesh, and to the devil; would you rise now into the majesty of heavenly-mindedness, and hereafter into the glorious dignity of

the Sons of God?-you must be born of God! you must be new-created in Christ Jesus unto good works; you must begin with Faith, go on with Faith, live by Faith, ascend by Faith where Christ has gone before us! There is but one path of access to the mount of God: and that path goes through the valley of humiliation there is but one seed of heavenly-mindedness and heavenly glory, and that seed must be sown in tears. Recollect, you are in yourselves fallen, you are earthly, you are sensual: you are born of the flesh, and therefore flesh. And what is God's remedy for this? what is the method by which he would raise you from it even to himself? I will tell you :-" God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."-" When we were yet without strength,"-with no means or possibilities of our own of recovery from our low estate," Christ died for us."" He was made sin for us, though He knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."-" Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into the grace or favour of God, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."-He ministers the Spirit